I seriously don't want Jim Wright's life. He gets actual death threats from actual neo-Nazis. I'm feeling blessed to have the occasional dose of tone policing, though that's annoying enough. I'm sensitive to my tone, I really am, and I went back a full month of stuff to see whether I was sounding "constantly angry" and, nope, that was definitely not me being angry. I said I was sad, disappointed and pissed off, yes, but always with a plan to NOT feel so bad, and ideas about stuff to do to fix this train wreck. I did say I wasn't going to quit being an angry grandma because my granddaughters' futures are at stake. Still true.
You know what's pretty much guaranteed to make me angry? A lecture from a reader who feels entitled to scold me like I'm a child who was rude to the grownups and SO DISAPPOINTING. And if I could just change my tone, I could be redeemed. A few choice responses were composed in my head and then discarded, because that person isn't reading anymore, so why waste the energy?
And right now I truly feel more positive than I have since the day after the election! Stuff is happening all over the country, people are more engaged and focused than they have been in a long time. It's fantastic.
I've never been a big Twitter fan; bossylittledogs has an account but I rarely tweet and mostly read. I am an even bigger J.K. Rowling fan now, if that's possible. She's hilarious and savage. If Uncle George Takei can figure out the Twitter Machine, I suppose I can too. I'm still mostly reading and rarely tweeting, because I feel like I'm wading through a sewer in flip-flops and a long skirt. I hold my skirts up and tiptoe delicately, because there's a whole lot of crazy in those waters.
Yesterday was absolutely drop-dead gorgeous - cloudless skies and mid-70s, one of those days that make visitors from the Midwest go home and put their house on the market because OMG the weather is AMAZING in WINTER! April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and occasionally early December come as a rude shock. But yesterday was truly perfect, and it didn't take much thinking to bail on housework after half a day's earnest effort and head for the Magic Kingdom.
Getting into and out of the park was a bit of a slog this time. Something was up with the monorail system, and after waiting quite a while in a non-moving train, we were shooed off it and told to take the ferry. The ferry really is the way to go, IMO.
The park was busy but not awful, and after a few hours of roller coasters and a huge lobster roll with homemade potato chips for dinner (I really must start taking more food photos) I felt satisfactorily Disney-ed. I do regret not taking any time to shop. I'm still carrying around a Disney gift card from Christmas, and I intend to spend it on something silly and indulgent. But we all know I'll be going back very soon, I'll get around to spending it.
Today's mission is to complete the tasks I didn't do yesterday. My gray roots are truly epic and need serious attention. I also need a better haircut. My stylist did what I asked her to do last time and I shouldn't be trusted to decide these things. It looks like crap, neither here nor there, not really short, not really anything, looks like one of those "growing in" styles you suffer through in an in-between hair stage, not a style I'd choose on purpose. I was looking at all the very-short-haired women at Disney and decided it's time to go for it again. Something like the old picture in my sidebar feels right. I really need to do some housekeeping on this blog one of these days. That pic is about 4 years old? Five? I don't recall.
Before I slap the color on the roots and resume the house cleaning, I am going to go to Joann's in my continuing quest for a damn basic crochet motif pattern book written for people who can still READ. OMG. Seriously, nobody bothers to provide a downloadable PDF anymore, save one enterprising soul who has a pattern for the African Flower hexagon I'd like to try for sale on Ravelry for like six bucks. For ONE pattern that has been around for years. Bless her heart.
So I need a size G hook anyway, and hopefully JoAnn's will provide a simple old-fashioned Leisure Arts book with the basics I need. I can crochet but I'm not highly proficient at it, and frankly I don't want to waste my precious free time trying to create my own pattern for something that should be widely available without a damn search. I don't know why I'm suddenly itching to crochet squares, but I am suddenly itching to crochet squares. God knows I have plenty of leftover yarn to use up.
So, as we wait for the next episode in the insane spy movie that is now our life in Trumpistan, I do have to share this little tidbit. I don't watch my stats, because as I've said, this isn't a moneymaking blog, it's just a thing I've been doing for years. I've had the same small number of readers for a very long time, but the kerfuffle of reader quittery did make me curious about whether I was driving people away by talking about what's happened to the country. So I looked, and there's been a small but steady uptick in readership lately. Still laughably small compared to the big kid bloggers, but an uptick nonetheless. So I decided to look further at traffic sources. The biggest is still Google, as one would expect. But guess where a lot of my new "readers" are coming from?
Russia. I kid you not. I'm sure these are just some sort of bot-things trolling for keywords and Boris and Natasha aren't actually sitting at laptops reading about the lobster roll I ate last night, but yep, I suddenly have new traffic from that part of the world. How 'bout that?
5 comments:
Hi Catherine, here's a link to a Lion brand pattern for a market bag made of crocheted hexagons.
http://www.lionbrand.com/crochet-pattern-hexagon-market-bag-1.html
I've used the directions in beginning crochet classes at our local yarn shop over the years. If the link does not work well, I could also e-mail the .pdf if you would like.
I first found your blog when my 14 year old Boston Mister Toad was beginning to have health issues. He and Murphy died within months of each other. I have a rescue Boston now, Miss Cricket, who is a fine companion.
In the name of full disclosure, I am still struggling with my personal Trumprage; I knitted pink hats for my daughters and my friends to march in Asheville, and I've joined the Resistance group here in North Carolina.
Kaye Reynolds in western NC
Kaye! Thank you, you're a lifesaver! I hadn't thought of searching Lion Brand yet. I did discover in my searching that two freebie Kindle books are actually the same directions, nearly word for word, written in the same awkward style, allegedly by two different authors. Both have a big copyright notice up front, too. So cute. Thank you, thank you, this is exactly what I needed - the basic recipe!
P.S.: My son marched in Asheville. My DIL is a hair stylist and was fully booked that day, but he was out there. I love western NC so much.
It was 89 degrees here yesterday--IN FEBRUARY. Does anybody wonder what summer's gonna be like? Yikes.
89?? I'm hoping that's a typo. Delaney actually had to wrap up in the sweater I made her last year after the sun went down. Adding new sweaters for the girls to my knit list for the year. I make 'em big so they can get a couple of seasons out of them.
Post a Comment